The biggest snake captured during the month-long 'Python Challenge' in Florida is to be released back into the wild.

In total, three pythons are going to be let back out into the Everglades, each equipped with two transmitters.

Officials hope that these trick snakes will direct them to thousands of pythons hiding in the swamps and, most importantly, to breeding females.

'It's breeding time and females attract males and we have three eager young lads sitting out there with radio transmitters on them who can lead us to the breeding female and we can catch her,' Frank Mazzotti, wildlife professor and organizer of the competition, told ABC News.

Scroll down for video

Sixty-eight Burmese pythons have been killed during month-long public hunt for the non-native species in the Florida Everglades

Fred Merrell, 48, hunts for pythons in the Big Cypress National Preserve during the Python Challenge in the Florida Everglades

'Python Challenge' officials announced on
Saturday that just 68 snakes were killed during the public hunt that
attracted 1,600 people from over 30 states in the hope of cash prizes.

No one is quite sure how many of the non-native species live in the Everglades but estimates have ranged up to 100,000 animals.

Though
the final body count for the Python Challenge was fairly small,
organizers say they were very happy with the outcome of the hunt.

'Thanks to the determination of Python Challenge competitors, we are able to gather invaluable information that will help refine and focus combined efforts to control pythons in the Everglades,' Florida wildlife commission executive director Nick Wiley told CNN.

Share this article

As well as culling South Florida’s
population of the invasive snakes, the purpose of the hunt was also
to raise awareness about non-native species and their detrimental
effects on the local ecosystem.

The pythons can grow up to 18 feet in length, but finding the camouflaged pythons in Florida's swampland wasn't easy.

'You can go out there for days and days and days and not see one python,' hunter Justin Matthews told CNN last month. 'I don't care how much experience you have. It is going to take some luck.'

Officials said that challenge competitors had covered a million acres of swamp, brush and sawgrass.

But these efforts weren't without rewards for the proud winners.

Brian Barrows of Fort Myers, Florida, won a $1,500 grand prize in the amateur category for killing six pythons. In the professional category, Ruben Ramirez of Miami won the same amount for notching up 18 snakes.

Paul Shannon, also from Florida, took home $1,000 for bagging the longest python (which was later realeased), which measured 14 feet, 3 inches.

Captain Jeff Fobb, of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's Venom One unit, explains the infestation problem to the media with the help of an 85-pound python

Two young men who became 'stranded and disoriented' while taking part in the hunt were rescued on February 7 by police piloting a chopper.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office said units responded to a call about the missing men at about 4 p.m. Air rescue units began a search of the area, and the hunters were found a half-hour later.

A helicopter landed in the Everglades and transported the two men to rescue units a few miles away.

The victims, ages 22 and 25, 'complained of lightheadedness and weakness and were suffering from heat exhaustion and dehydration,' according to the news release from the sheriff's office. Firefighters were told they were from Tennessee.

The men, who have not been identified, were treated at the scene and declined to be transported to a hospital.

Hunters were restricted to four state wildlife management areas; Everglades National Park was off-limits. They were allowed to use some firearms, as well as captive bolts and machetes to kill the pythons.

Florida state offered cash prizes to whoever brought in the longest python and whoever killed the most snakes

Captain Jeff Fobb displays a python during the kick-off ceremonies in January. This 13-foot snake was captured a year ago swimming in a backyard pool

Before the start of the hunt in January, dozens of would-be python
hunters showed up for some last-minute training in snake handling at the University of Florida.

The training came down to common sense: Drink water, wear sunscreen, don't get bitten by anything and don't shoot anyone.

Many of the onlookers were dressed in camouflage, though they probably didn't have to worry about spooking the snakes.

They would have a much harder time spotting the splotchy, tan pythons in the long green grasses and woody brush of the Everglades.

'It's advantage-snake,' mechanical engineer Dan Keenan concluded after slashing his way through a quarter-mile of scratchy sawgrass, dried leaves and woody overgrowth near a campsite in the Big Cypress National Preserve, which is about 50 miles southeast of Naples and is supervised by the National Park Service.

Keenan, of Merritt Island, and friend Steffani Burd of Melbourne, a statistician in computer security, holstered large knives and pistols on their hips, so they'd be ready for any python that crossed their path.

Dan Keenan battles through thick brush in search for Burmese pythons, also described as the 'zombies of the Everglades'

The most useful tool they had, though, was the key fob to their car. Burd wanted to know that they hadn't wandered too far into the wilderness, so Keenan clicked the fob until a reassuring beep from their car chirped softly through the brush.

The recommended method for killing pythons is the same for killing zombies: a gunshot to the brain, or decapitation to reduce the threat. (The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals doesn't approve of the latter method, though.)

Pythons are kind of the zombies of the Everglades, though their infestation is less deadly to humans. The snakes have no natural predators, they can eat anything in their way, they can reproduce in large numbers and they don't belong here.

Florida currently prohibits
possession or sale of the pythons for use as pets, and federal law bans
the importation and interstate sale of the species.

Wildlife
experts say pythons are just the tip of the invasive species iceberg.
Florida is home to more exotic species of amphibians and reptiles than
anywhere else in the world, said John Hayes, dean of research for the
University of Florida's Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences.

Careful lookout: Another hunter, BR Slocum, uses a golf cart as he searches for snakes with his son

Roughly 2,050 pythons have been harvested in Florida since 2000, according to the conservation commission. It's unknown exactly how many are slithering through the wetlands.

Officials hope the competition will help rid the Everglades of the invaders while raising awareness about the risks that exotic species pose to Florida's native wildlife.

Keenan and Burd emerged from the Everglades empty-handed, but they planned to return the next day, hoping for cooler temperatures that would drive heat-seeking snakes into sunny patches along roads and levees.

Burd still deemed the hunt a success. 'For me, I take back to my friends and community that there is a beautiful environment out here.

It's opening the picture from just the python issue to the issue of how do we protect our environment,' she said.

On the trail: Dan Keenan (right) and Steffani Burd (left) head into the Everglades in the search of pythons